Tag Archives: Diesel Loco Shed

Having decided to use bio-diesel in a big way for its fleet of diesel locomotives to reduce fuel consumption, Southern Railway has set out on this task by putting in place necessary infrastructure required for setting up a huge bio diesel tank in Tiruchi.

As a prelude to installing the bio-diesel tank, the work of laying seamless steel pipeline to a length of around 200 metres has commenced within the Diesel Loco Shed at Ponmalai here.

The bio-diesel tank would have a 20,000 litre storage capacity with the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) laying the seamless steel pipeline within the premises of the shed that houses different types of diesel locomotives.

The pipeline laying work is expected to be completed in a day or two following which the IOC would install a new tank adjoining the shed to store bio-diesel to be procured from a private supplier at Chennai. Southern Railway officials toldThe Hindu that the bio-diesel tank would be ready by first week of October to enable blending of bio-diesel with high speed diesel for use in diesel locomotives. Five per cent of bio-diesel is to be blended with 95 per cent of high speed diesel at the Railway Consumer Depot adjoining the Diesel Loco Shed. The blended fuel would be used in the diesel locomotives when they come for refilling at the shed and at the Tiruchi Goods Yard, a senior officer said. The blended fuel would be sent through the seamless steel pipeline from the railway consumer depot to the fuel point at the shed where the refilling would take place.

Seamless steel pipes have been chosen as it could withstand the oil pressure. The Southern Railway has proposed to put up a 70 kilo-litre tank adjoining the shed to store the blended fuel before this year. The initiative of the railway administration to use bio-diesel is to reduce diesel consumption and cut down its staggering oil bill, the officer said. The locomotive’s performance would not get affected in any way by using bio-diesel in a limited quantity. The blended fuel would be used in the high horse power EMD locomotives and the ‘Alco’ type diesel locomotives – both of which are housed at the Tiruchi Diesel Shed.

The diesel shed accommodates 45 ‘EMD’ locos which can chug at a maximum speed of 130 kilometres per hour and 61 ‘Alco’ locomotives besides 31 diesel power cars.

With Sundargarh district witnessing development in various sectors, the South Eastern Railway (SER) is all set to establish a second electric locomotive shed at Bondamunda of Rourkela city.

A release issued by SER stated that to meet the growing traffic needs of the zone, a decision has been taken to set up the second loco shed. There has been an annual traffic growth of eight to nine per cent on the Howrah-Mumbai main line and branch lines, the release stated, adding that IRCON has been assigned the project with a deadline to complete it by March 2017.

The existing electric loco shed at Bondamunda caters to repair and maintenance of about 200 electric engines of goods trains. With addition of the new facility, the combined capacity would increase to handle about 400 electric locomotives, they said.

The new facility, with state-of-the-art technology, will handle about 200 new generation electric locomotives of high horse power for goods trains.

Incidentally, the diesel loco shed set up in 1962 at Bondamunda holds the distinction of being one of the oldest sheds of Indian Railway. The diesel loco shed has been consistently handling 139 diesel engines of goods and coaching trains belonging to Chakradharpur, Kharagpur, Sambalpur, Khurda, Visakhapatnam, Ranchi, Adra, Bilaspur and Raigarh divisions of the three zones.

Senior Divisional Electrical Engineer, (Traction Rolling Stock) Atulya Kumar, said Bondamunda holds strategic importance on the Howrah-Mumbai route and the second electric loco shed is necessitated to cater to the growing traffic needs of SER zone and nearby zones.

Laying of the third track of SER in Howrah-Kharagpur section has been completed and work in Rourkela-Tatanagar section is underway at sporadic locations, while work in Rourkela-Jharsuguda section would be taken up in next phase, Kumar said.

Track doubling proposal between Rourkela and Hatia has been approved while work on Bondamunda and Bimlagarh sections of SER is going on. Doubling of track between Rengali and Jharsuguda of East Coast Railway (ECoR) is also underway.

OBC Railway Employees’ Association president Prakash Sharma said since the new facility would use modern technology, it is likely to engage 250 to 300 direct employees. It will also provide indirect economic opportunities to local people and spare parts suppliers.

General secretary, Rail Users’ Association, AC Baral said the Indian Railways should also seriously consider implementing the old proposal to set up a wagon manufacturing factory at Bondamunda to use the iron plates and steel of Rourkela Steel Plant.

Elaborate arrangements have been made for the golden jubilee celebrations of the India’s largest Loco Shed – Visakhapatnam Diesel Loco Shed. The VDLS, Waltair, was established in 1965 and started its operations on May 2 in the undivided South Eastern Railway. It is the only loco shed serving the needs of East Coast Railway after the trifurcation of the SER in 2003.

Its covered area accommodates 32 locomotives at a time. The service building has spread over 14,645 Sq.Mts, for maintenance of locos. The shed also houses a diesel training centre for staff. At present there are about 2,000 people working there.

According to senior divisional commercial manager M Yelvender Yadav, VDLS has been earning considerable income by undertaking maintenance activities of major schedules and component overhauling for RITES, RINL, VPT, and NMDC. To cater to the maintenance of the increased fleet of HHP locomotives, work for its capacity augmentation at a cost of Rs 53 crore was sanctioned this year, Yadav informed.

The Diesel Loco Shed of the South Central Railway at Gooty town celebrated its golden jubilee year of existence here on Thursday amidst much fanfare and nostalgia, replete with retired employees of the initial years. Speaking as the chief guest of the programme, P.C. Gajbhiye, Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Gooty Diesel Loco Shed (SCR) said the facility that was started as a steam-based locomotive maintenance shed has become a state-of-the-art Diesel Loco Shed which boasts of handling close to 182 locomotives as against its built up capacity of 110. “The shed would be able to handle 250 locomotives in next two years after upgrade of infrastructure,” he said. As part of the celebrations, five retired employees were felicitated. The function was attended by DRM Manoj Joshi, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer S. Srinivas and others.

Southern Railway has brought out a revised and updated trouble shooting guide for Loco Pilots (LP) and Assistant Loco Pilots (ALP) to help them rectify the technical problems they encounter while piloting engines.

Running into 102 pages, the guide is meant for trouble shooting Alco-type BG locomotives, the main stay of the Indian Railway.

The glossy manual with photographs has been designed and developed by a team of faculty of the Tiruchi-based Diesel Traction Training Centre (DTTC) with inputs from various railway sheds.

The manual brought out after a gap of 15 years not only mentions 55 major types of technical problems and the procedures to rectify them.

Engine not cranking, engine cranking not firing, throttle not responding, poor hauling power, and feed pipe pressure not building up are among the myriad of problems that are mention in the guide. The updated manual had become necessary due to manufacture of new variants of Alco locos and technological improvements carried out in such engines, officials toldThe Hindu. “The guide would serve as a ready reckoner for loco pilots and would help in ensuring punctuality and safety of the locomotives,” officials said. Hitherto, loco pilots used to call up the respective diesel shed or divisional power controllers to rectify the problem.

The guide would be provided to the over 3,500 LP and ALPs in the railway zone. . The manual could be used for trouble shooting in locomotives used for hauling mail, express and passenger trains besides those meant for shunting purpose. The guide was released by D. Shunmuganandham, Chief Motive Power Engineer, Southern Railway, at the Tiruchi Diesel Loco Shed on Tuesday.

A newly manufactured high horsepower diesel locomotive with dual cabin arrangement has been introduced by the Railways for the first time in south India.

The 4,500 horsepower loco commissioned this month would be homed at the Diesel Loco Shed in Tiruchi, the biggest shed in Southern Railway zone with a holding of over 150 diesel engines including 27 EMD-type locos. This will be the first shed in south India to home the dual cab loco.

The loco pilot cabin has been provided in both ends of the diesel engine similar to that of an electric locomotive. It could be operated from front and rear cabin.

At present, all diesel engines being operated in south India are provided with only single cabin.

The dual cab loco would provide accurate visibility to the loco pilots to sight the signals and any obstructions on the track even at a speed of 130 kilometre per hour.

Dispatched from the Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi, the dual cab loco is presently being used for training loco pilots of Salem and Palakkad railway divisions on handling the engines.

The loco would be extensively used for hauling prestigious super fast trains such as the Rajdhani and the Jan Shatabdi expresses of south India.

Another unique feature of the dual cab engine is that it has been provided with a parallel display system for the Assistant Loco Pilot to monitor the performance of the engine from his seat. This facility is not available in other locomotives, railway officials here told ‘The Hindu’.

Equipped with computer controlled braking system, the engine can run at a maximum permissible speed of 130 kilometres per hour.

The seats inside the cabin have been ergonomically designed and various parameters such as speed, air pressure in brake pipes, feed pipes, main reservoir tanks have been customised and displayed in a computer (LED) display, eliminating the conventional gauges.

The control panel has been fabricated with fibre reinforced plastic material to give an elegant look.

With a 5,000-litre fuel tank capacity, the engine with six traction motors weighs 123 tonnes.

It would be utilised for hauling Rajdhani and Jan Shatabdi trains upon getting a clearance from the Commissioner of Railway Safety, the officials said.

Inspire Minds blog: Inspire Minds

Ingvar Feodor Kamprad was born on 30 March 1926, in a small farm called Elmtaryd near village of Agunnaryd, in the Swedish province of Småland. Kamprad started showing interest in business even as a small boy.Hebegan to develop a business as a young boy, selling matches to neighbours from his bicycle. He found that he […]

Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp was born in a small village near Kiev in Ukraine. He was the only child of a housewife and a construction manager who built hospitals and schools. His house did not even have electricity.He led a life full of hardships as his family struggled hard to meet ends meet. Jan […]